Your RV might be called a recreational vehicle, but it’s much more than that. It’s a home on wheels, a place for your family to enjoy a vacation, and it’s a place where you make memories. If you play your cards right, you’ll spend a lot of time in your RV, getting the most possible use out of your investment.
You don’t want any unseemly odors getting in the way of any of that.
That’s why we’ve put together this quick guide to preventing and even eliminating the most frequent RV odors that owners struggle with:
Cushions
Cushions can often be the invisible source of odor within your RV: we use them so much that we forget all about them. But regular cushion cleaning as part of a consistent RV maintenance routine will help ensure that stains don’t lead to long-term odor problems that are more difficult to get out the longer you wait to remove them.
You’d be amazed at how clean you can keep your cushions simply through regular vacuuming. As is the case with your carpet at home, you do more than pick up debris when you vacuum—you help make sure that your cushions will remain dry (which is good for preventing bacteria, as well as odors) and stink-free.
Carpet
Many of the same rules that apply to cushions apply to carpets. Regular vacuuming will keep them fresh and dry. A good, thorough carpet cleaning with a rented carpet cleaner would do a lot to ensure that stains don’t turn into long-term problems. With regular vacuuming and spot-cleaning of any individual stains, you should be able to keep any potential carpet odors at bay.
Fridge
Let’s face it: we like eating our food, but so do bacteria. That’s why refrigerators have long been a source of mysterious, ungodly odors that can be hard to track down without a total cleaning—which sometimes leads to throwing out perfectly good food. Keep your refrigerator clean of odors by regularly throwing out spoiled food. What’s more, don’t refrigerator some items that don’t require refrigeration, as a closed refrigerator door only serves to hide odors before you can detect them.
Bathroom
As is the case in your house, the bathroom gets some of the most frequent use. And due to the nature of everything you do in the bathroom, from using the shower to brushing your teeth, there’s always one big concern that arises: mildew.
Mildew might stink, but it’s not a death sentence for a bathroom. Mildew, in many cases, can be simply removed by applying mildew remover. You can spot-remove mildew when you clean your bathroom from time to time, but as is always the case, prevention is more important than the cure. We recommend keeping a bottle of our mildew remover handy amongst your regular cleaning supplies so you can get rid of bathroom mildew as often as you clean it. This will prevent long-term mildew piling up where you can’t see it—and ensuring that no “invisible odors” take up residence in your RV bathroom.
